Proust, Flaubert, Shakespeare – and iPads
It’s a literary affair at Paris’ newest boutique hotel,
Le Pavillon des Lettres
Just opened 2010
• Le Pavillon des Lettres, a luxury boutique hotel, has just opened off the Faubourg St Honoré in the 8th arrondissement, near the Elysée and the British Embassy
• As a sister hotel to the much-loved Pavillon de la Reine in the Place des Vosges, it shares the same owner, management and designer
• There are just 26 rooms: each one dedicated to a letter of the alphabet and a writer – from Andersen (Hans Christian) to Zola (Emile)
• Lines from a poem, play or text are an integral part of the design in every room – hand-stenciled above the bed
• Rooms from A to Z: Hans Christian Andersen, Charles Baudelaire, Pedro Calderón de la Barca, Denis Diderot, Eschyle (Aeschylus), Gustave Flaubert, Johann Wolfgang Goethe, Victor Hugo, Henrik Ibsen, Henry James, Franz Kafka, Jean de La Fontaine, Alfred de Musset, Gérard de Nerval, Ovid, Marcel Proust, José María de Eca de Queiroz, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, William Shakespeare, Leo Tolstoy, Honoré d´Urfé, Voltaire, Virginia Woolf, Xenophon, William Butler Yeats, Émile Zola
• Technology lives alongside the classics – every guestroom and suite has an iPod, which replaces the traditional room directory. iPads are also loaded with books in several different languages, as well as playlists and international newspapers
• 26 rooms and suites – ‘Les Litteraires’;
‘Les Belles Lettres’ and ‘Les Romantiques’ – two top-floor suites with perfect views of the Eiffel Tower and the Grand Palais.
• The Salon, for breakfast and the honesty bar – is also home to the hotel’s library – an invitation to read everything from novels to comic books; the great classics to newly published works, both French and international
• Architect and interior designer Didier Benderli has created subtle, sophisticated interiors, that are very French, very elegant and modern. Previous work includes Le Pavillon de la Reine, the restaurant Kitsch in New York and the caviar restaurant Pétrossian in Monaco
• A 5 minute stroll from the Place Madeleine (and the Madeleine metro station); a short walk from Place de la Concorde, Jardins des Tuileries and the Champs Elysees; 15 minute drive from the Gare du Nord for Eurostar; 45 minute drive from Roissy Charles de Gaule International Airport
• Opening offer– an overnight stay in one of “Les Littéraires” (Superior rooms) at 300 Euro per night, with buffet breakfast for 2 persons, including of tax and service charges and a welcome gift. To book, www.pavillondeslettres.com | Telephone: + 33 (0)4 49 24 26 26
Le Pavillon des Lettres: an impossibly chic retreat for anyone who loves art and literature – and a subtle alternative to the city’s traditional 5-star hotels